Holy Engineers
'Conspiracy: Holy Engineers' Purpose: ''To recover the physical remains of the Angel of Death, and return them to their rightful place in the Temple of the Black Sun, which is on the dark side of the moon. Doing so will make them fully human and immortal, and possibly create a permanent lunar eclipse. ''Doctrine: ''To receive the answers broadcast by the God Machine, decipher the question, and broadcast it back - thus closing the time loop created by the God Machine answering a question before it has been asked. The prophecies are obeyed as closely as they can be interpreted, and all Holy Engineers aid those Holy Sufferers who are in the grips of Radio Sickness - the means by which the God Machine delivers Death's prophecies. ''Membership: ''The God Talkers recruit those who receive a prophecy, continually alert to the signs of Radio Sickness. Members might be drawn from any clan and any covenant - it is Death's prerogative to choose its Holy Engineers. 'Initiation Benefits' • The character receives a free specialty in her choice of either Occult or Science. •• The character receives a free dot of the Computers skill. ••• While under the effects of Radio Sickness, the character gains the Cursed Condition. This is mechanically identical to the Cursed Merit, but represents the God Talker's fanaticism while acting under prophecy rather than specifically an awareness of her own doom. •••• The character gains the Unseen Sense (God-Machine) Merit free of charge. ••••• The Holy Engineer is so attuned to the signals of the God Machine that she does not require Distortion to draw her attention. She gains the Omen Sensitivity Merit free of charge. 'Radio Sickness' The first night, the character suffers from the Distortion Condition. On the second night, this is replaced by the Receiver Condition. On the third night this is replaced by the Radio Sickness Condition. Distortion : Weird electrical phenomena keep happening in the character's vicinity. Lights flicker, TVs get static, MP3 players skip and ATM screens get flecks of random ASCII garbage as the Kindred walks by. These effects grow worse as the night goes on. Half-faces groan out of video screens, lights seem to pulse in rhythm even when they're not plugged in, credit cards get erased, computers get errors, ball lightning or St. Elmo's Fire appear clinging to the tops of buildings. In the hour before dawn compasses may start spinning in the Kindred's presence, or northern lights may appear. The effects cease at dawn, and the Condition is replaced without resolution by the Receiver Condition the following night. : Beat: If this Condition causes you to endanger the Masquerade. Receiver : Every analog medium near the character delivers the same obscure message, which may include cryptic words, phrases, numbers, and/or foreign phrases. Speakers blare out in unison, no matter what channel or input they're using, VCR tapes carry the audio, and camera film develops images reminiscent of the clues. The Condition fades without resolution at the end of the night, to be replaced by Radio Sickness. : Resolution: The character interprets the prophecy and transmits an appropriate question back to the God Machine by bleeding a point of Vitae into a sufficiently powerful radio transmitter and sending the signal. : Beat: If this Condition causes you to endanger the Masquerade. Radio Sickness : The first three nights of Radio Sickness have no cinematic or mechanical effect, effectively a latency period. From the fourth night you awaken with hemorrhages, which cost an extra point of blood upon waking. Each night thereafter it costs an extra Vitae, cumulatively. Additionally, once the hemorrhages begin you take a point of damage each night, which progresses in intensity: one bashing the first night you hemmorhage, one lethal the second night, then two lethal, three lethal, four lethal, one aggravated, two aggravated, and so on. If you suffer a point of aggravated damage from this Condition, reactivate the Receiver Condition. : Should the character suffer a point of aggravated damage from Radio Sickness, the Receiver Condition is reactivated. : Resolution: The character interprets the prophecy and transmits an appropriate question back to the God Machine by bleeding a point of Vitae into a sufficiently powerful radio transmitter and sending the signal. : Beat: The character takes injury from this Condition. 'Source''' More information on the Holy Engineers can be found in ''The Danse Macabre, ''pp 105-110. Category:Cults Category:Conspiracies Category:Translations Category:Holy Engineers Category:Conditions